The Making of Pixar's 'Cars' and Disney Cars Toys

With a gross earning of over $460,000,000the cars are designed. John wanted, for example, to
worldwide, the 2006 animated film Cars by Pixar washave the cars eyes at the windshields instead of the
2006's highest animated grossing film in the US,headlights which made them look snake-like .An
loosing only to Ice age: The Meltdown on the globaladditional request was to use the tires as hands
scale. This revenue does not include income from theexcept vehicles with hooks that use them for pulling
Disney cars toys industry.and towing. It is a continuing challenge to make they
Starting from the early stages of production thecars human like without loosing their authenticity.
team in Pixar Studios started their research at theWhen the design phase was done, 3d models were
race tracks in Infineon Raceway ( Sonoma county),sculptured in clay and when approved they would be
riding in race cars driven by expert drivers to feelscanned to 3d software. The same models were
how the cars move and react to speed and forces inused later as reference for Disney cars toys.
the physics of the real world. They would also studyThe next phase before animating any sequence
traffic on the morning commute and went on a fieldwould be to make the car look realistic by applying
trip along route 66 watching the small towns thattextures, shadows, reflections and lighting.
were effected from the new highways andOnce the movie was released additional products
intersections that were built. The photos from thiswere released such as Disney cars toys, dvds books,
trips helped the modelers and environment designersaccessories and more that made cars one of the
build their scenes and unravel the story.best selling animation feature even today, 3 years
Animators studied the movements of athletes to seeafter release.
how they twist , turn and move and even tookCurrently (dated Aug 2009) pixar studios, which is
acting classes to get into the cars' shoes (or tires).located in Emeryville, California have earned twenty
Developers sketched multiple cars designs (fromtwo academy awards, three Grammys and four
different time periods) following John Lesseter'sgolden globes for their achievements in the animated
guidelines which did a research of his own visiting theindustry.
design studios of 3 major auto makers to see how